Love him or hate him, Stephen King has supplied the world with a scary amount of films adapted from his books. But which one puts chills up your spine the most? Chris and Kyle discuss two, but there are so many to choose from. Which one is your favorite? Or are you too scared to post?

The right answer is The Shining. You've got Kubrick and Nicholson both at the top of their game, and Shelley Duvall being driven to an actual nervous breakdown. Second is Misery, which features easily the most deservedly Oscar winning performance of all time.

You can say the Shining was a good movie (I disagree, but that's a matter of opinion). You can say the book is a good read (it is). But the movie is disqualified as an adaptation of the book, and therefore not eligible to be included in the voting. The book and the movie have NOTHING to do with each other. The names of the characters are the same. The name of the hotel is the same (The Overlook). Otherwise, they are two entirely separate things with no relation whatsoever. You can't call it an adaptation, it was a complete rewrite. Kubrick obviously thought he could do a better job writing the story than King could, and that's what he attempted to do.

Edit: I think the idea that the film should be as faithful as possible ridiculous. Film is a different medium and should reinterpret the story rather than follow it to the letter. Last good example is Nolan's Batman films.

Also, King's real horror stories are hard to reinterpret cause of his imagination and amazing character builds (which take too much time to properly put on film.

I didnt care for the mists ending. And the shining... well, you can go to any forum board with a discussion on it and see the hate book fans have for it. But of those two, the mist is the better adaptation (even if the ending is bullshit and should not have been included).

HOWEVER! Those are two really crappy choices. You could have picked Salem's Lot, Children of the Corn (the first one, which up until the end was really good), Shawshank, THE GREEN MILE (winner by the way), Stand by me, The Stand, creep show, Christine, apt pupil (really good by the way).

Edit: I think the idea that the film should be as faithful as possible ridiculous. Film is a different medium and should reinterpret the story rather than follow it to the letter. Last good example is Nolan's Batman films.

I presume this is more or less directed at me.

I agree with you. That's why it is called an "adaptation". Changes when adapting from one medium to another are both necessary and good.

However, that's not what was done with the Shining. Those are completely different stories. You cannot call it an adaptation and keep a straight face. It's not an adaptation, it's a rewrite. And therefore you cannot really compare the movie and the book. They are two separate and totally different things.

Has anyone mentioned Pet Cemetery yet? I thought that was a pretty decent adaptation.

This felt pretty half-assed; 'make their cheese slide right off their cracker' made me laugh, though.

I haven't read The Shining, but a good adaptation takes what it can directly from the source material and changes what it must to fit into a film format. Whether it's a good adaptation or not, The Shining is a great movie.

I will say that both The Mist and The Shining are the best adaptations, but when it comes to which one is the best, I have to say it's a close tie.On the one hand, The Shining is a great example of how the adaptation can sometimes exceed the original source material, Stanley Kubrick is brilliant when it comes to pacing and composition, and it was genuinely creepy(I did not see the meaning of "redrum" coming, Jack Nicholson is fantastic in this, etc.). Not to mention that it features the one moment in any film I've ever seen where I was both aroused but terrified at the same time (you know it if you've seen it). Not to mention that the ending just blows your mind (I still don't know what it means).

On the other hand, The Mist has some of the best monsters in any film of the last decade, plenty of great acting, and the very notion that biggest terror in the film isn't so much the monsters, but some of the people in this movie. Basically, it's a great example of a potential scenario in which humanity finds itself threatened yet we're all still the same selfish, arrogant, high-minded jerks people normally are. Also, the ending is a huge slap to the face. Seriously, it will kick your ass and piss you off. In a good way.

I vote for "Needful Things" as best adaptation... and... NO NO NO NO !!! Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" is a great movie but it can't be an adaptation is more like an interpretation is way different from the book

The only one I've seen is the Mist, so was happy to see it there. I know I should watch the rest, maybe I will some day.I really liked the mist. The ending was haunting, even though, from what I can tell from this thread, it's different from the book's.